Camilo Cienfuegos, immortal due to his virtues
I was born in 1960, and when I had use of reason, the name Camilo was added to my memory, because my mother spoke a lot about him and she wanted me to look like that man in the big-winged hat. I grew up listening to the stories by my father, who was a peasant, but an excellent reader. He was also born in 1913. I knew the history of Cuba.
Camilo Cienfuegos, after I was able to read and grab who Camilo was, I firmly recorded an image that can never be erased. I see the child restless, wanting to be in everything, accompanied by laughter and jokes, but with persistence and seriousness in his goals.
Thus a young man would grew up with values and decisions to face life in a society dominated by perfidy, deceit, humiliation and exploitation to which a people eager for freedom and rights was subjected. Camilo was wounded in a demonstration against Batista’s dictatorship and was taken prisoner twice.
His revolutionary restlessness would lead him to meet Fidel in Mexico, and to come on the Granma Yacht and be on the list of those who initiated the guerrilla struggle in the Sierra Maestra.
I imagine that joking young man, whom Che would exceptionally accept his jokes. But his courage, his character, his well-defined goal gained him an infinite trust on the part of Fidel Castro, who assigned him to take, parallel to Che, the invasion to the West.
I imagine, who was initially named the Man of the Vanguard, for being the first to come down from the Sierra de la Maestra, by order of Fidel, to take the armed struggle to the plain, which he fulfilled beyond what was calculated.
That man with the broad smile and the big-winged hat, defeated all enemy forces and reached the West. A faithful commander to his cause, a lover of poetry and music, a conqueror and lover of life and his people, he is always remembered and honored on October 28 with flowers from all over Cuba reaching the rivers and the sea, thrown by students and the people in general.
I learned from Camilo loyalty, perseverance, the limit of the humorous and the serious. I knew about his combat ability and respect for life. I see in every flower that is thrown, each value, each virtue, each quality that makes him immortal.
Written by Jorge Lora
